Prologue:
Now i am not a very enthusiastic blogger. I feel if you write something, people should take notice and emote... It can be any emotion... Joy,Anger,"I-Pity-the-fool-who-wrote-this-shitty-blog" feeling... Anything... And unfortunately it takes a lot of time and effort to convince people. So all these days I have been giving myself this satisfying explanation to what is actually my laziness.... This until i finished Chetan Bhagat's new offering: 2 States... The book evoked many contrasting emotions... Emotions which I felt were good enough to warrant this blog post...
Review:
A Chetan Bhagat book for me has always been a welcome change from the violent serious books which i read... (latest example-The lost symbol)... I dont know why i like his books... Compared to my other favorite authors(Alistair Maclean,Robert Ludlum) , Chetan's english and sense of grammar is nothing... So why do I like him??? There is a simple answer... He writes like us... He makes you feel that you can write like him(NO!!! You cant!!!)... Relatability is a something that makes things special.... And thats exactly what I felt when i read 2 states.... I could relate to the book.... That is the biggest USP of this book.... That is also one of the greatest disadvantages of the book but more on that later...
The story is simple enough... Krish, a Punjabi guy falls in love with Ananya, an iyer tamil brahmin ( Yes... they are 3 different things :P) then its the usual shit... how both of them try and convince their respective parents about their marriage ( of course they marry.... this is an indian book :P). But Chetan presents this half baked story in his now patented lucid writing style and makes a very good story... Chetan intersperses witty anecdotes throughout the story no doubt sourced from his own experiences and comes up with an unbelievably entertaining story.... In fact 2 states is one of the most entertaining books i have read in a long time...
The story contains all the "chetan elements"... a number in the title, some sex scenes( Why did you tone them down dude??? :D), Pink Floyd numbers being played when protagonist is boozing (This time its Shine on you crazy diamond), a sort of a spiritual awakening scenario, a strong feminine character and a relatively meek protagonist.. Yet the book seems very fresh... Referencing his earlier novel in this book is a very good idea because this sort of feels like a continuation of 5.someone( which i am sure any one buying the book by paying money has read).....
The best part of the book for me was the somewhat cruel but accurate representation of tamilians... more specifically tamil brahmins... As a tamil brahmin i could relate to it at a very personal level... His very accurate description of a Tamil brahmin wedding will surely be liked by the tamilians.... But i dint know that there is such a negative feeling among the north indians about south indians.... Its actually disturbing...
Now i come to the drawbacks.... There are a few drawbacks... The ending is a typical "happys endings" which bollywood dream merchants have executed so perfectly so many times.... Seems like Chetan kept the future prospect of a movie script in mind when he wrote the last 20 pages.... Another problem is that i dont think the north indians will relate to the book as much as i did.... There is a little too much tamil and brahmin related stuff that people wont understand whats going on... So I dont expect a pan India liking for this book.... All in all a very fun book... A book once you start reading really swallows you into its world... Such books always work...
All the best Chetan.... Expecting another amazing book in the near future....
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